Oude Tart is our take on a Flanders Style red ale. It has won back to back gold medals in that category at the World Beer Cup (2010 & 2012) as well as a gold medal at the Great American Beer Festival in 2010. This sour red ale ages in oak barrels for anywhere from 6 to 18 months before being carefully blended to taste. The resulting beer is pleasantly sour with hints of leather, dark fruit and toasty oak.

Reviews by Roguer:

Large 2 finger beige head, sparkly, quickly fading. Brew is a dark brown until held up to the light, which reveals gorgeous red highlights and a surprising clarity, with tons of bubbly action.

Tart and slightly funky, a lot of oak and sour notes in the nose. Dark fruit, lighter grains.

Extremely tart and sour up front, giving way (but never fading) to a smooth sweetness in the middle, and finished by a slight funk and sharp sourness on the end. Immediate pucker; sweet notes include red grapes and prunes, and nuts. Back-end carries a ton of oak and a nearly vinegar sour quality.

I don't feel that this beer stands out as an exceptionally good Flanders Red, but it's still an extremely tasty beer. At the price, I think I'd rather pick up a Rodenbach; if prices were equal, I still think I'd rather pick up a Rodenbach, but again, this is a good beer, no doubt.

More User Reviews:

Enjoyed out of a brown 750 mL bottle with a bottling date of 7/30/13 faintly etched in on the curve of the neck. Poured into a North Coast tulip glass with an exaggerated flare on the rim.

Appearance - Pours a dark, garnet red that reminds me of a ruby when it's absorbing, rather than reflecting, the light around it. So dark that when not held in front of a light source, it could almost look black, with just a sliver of dark crimson around the countour of the glass. Atop the body sits two fingers of tight light brown foam that shows moderate retention. Eventually recedes to a moderate film on top of the liquid. Lacing is sparse and slick looking.

Smell - Inhaling brings an assault of acidic aromatic profiles, with both acetic and citric joining the fray, but more the former than the latter. Red wine vinegar, oak tannins, and the impressions of preserved black cherries all combine to make this a nicely sour smelling beer.

Taste - The acidic element is still dominant, with acetic acid taking even more of a lead role than it did on the aroma. Again, red wine vinegar and tart black and red currant power through, with a musty note reminiscent of leather and humidor tobacco (but not smoky). As before, the oak imparts a nice woody, tannic quality to the beer, and it almost seems to provide a sense of subtle vanilla to balance the biting acidity.

Mouthfeel - Medium-bodied and high levels of carbonation that provides for a prickly, puckering feel on the tongue.

Overall, just a really well-done Flanders Red. Personally, I prefer my sour beers to pack a pretty good wallop, and this one certainly delivers. Over a full bottle, you get more than enough puckering to really get that electric sour fix. I'd love to try the version with cherries some day, since the base beer seemed to impart notes of cherry to begin with.

Sharply acidic and solely focused on cherry portrayal, this Californian-brewed, Belgian-style sour red ale is cleaner, crisper, and much drier than most that are devised outside of the lowlands of Belgium.

Pouring a lightly rusty color of brown, garnet, and orange; the beer is hazy and prefers a wine-like demeanor over that of beer. Though it's somewhat sprite carbonation yields a loosely knit white froth, it's structure falls and causes the beer the beer to look still shortly after the pour.

Strong sourness and tartness of "sour patch kids" candies emit from the initial aromas, but soon after the more mature scents of balsamic, leather, sour cherries with grapes offer up strong wine-like attributes. Its malty dryness supports the sourness with just enough cracker and honey notes give the sourness a rounded sense without attention.

The sharp and precise flavors hinge on the dry cherry taste, which accents its tartness. But the beer doesn't let up as the quick rebuttal of almond, apple, Cabernet, light leather, dusty oak, and white cider vinegar govern the beer's bulk of taste. It's a decadent taste that's dry, sharp, fruity, and lightly cheesy.

Light on the palate, the beer starts zesty, racy, and fully engulfed on the mouth. But as the carbonation subsides, it takes with it the creaminess the keeps the beer together and ushers in sheer acidic textures, light astringency, and mild warmth.

Ouded Tart really does all it says in its name. It is tart with the taste of dried acidic and succulent fruits; but also gives aged "savory" notes that shows the beer's patience and maturity. I love the beer for all it is, although its depth is just off of Rodenbach examples.

A sweet-tart flavor that is far more tart than sweet. There is a a lot of red current flavor along with some dark fruit and caramel malt for flavor. A light oak flavor and touch of leather with only a light sweetness the balance is strongly tart. The finish is medium with fruit flavor after taste.

A medium to medium-full bodied beer with a strong level of carbonation. There is a bit of carbonic bite.

Some of the class Flanders Red flavors of red currents with a sweet-tart balance and low carmel in a supporting malt body. I like that this one is fairly strongly tilted towards the tart and lightly sweet making it an immensely food friendly.

ahh the Bruery. If anyone tales you lightly in the year 2010, they are just effing high... You have the ability to over perform so consistently in everything you do and this baby right here was no exception.

This most recent release is no different than most of the bruery's recent ventures... freaking dope. The only place I really struggled was in not comparing it to other sours of a similar vein and price tag. If you charge the same amount as a bottle of Consecration, my frugal, 25 year old brain will immediately compare you to it.

The dark cherry was the standout nose, followed closely by oak. The taste was a very similar story and the dry cabernet-esque taste almost vaporized on the back end of the palate (nice). In a blind taste test I dont know if I could tell this beer from LaFolie, which is by no means an insult... I love the hell out of that beer. I just really hoped for a characteristic to grab me by the booboo